Cock-a-doodle-don't

Sept. 13, 2013

Updated Sept. 20, 2013 7:16 a.m.

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A black and white chicken walks around its enclosure in the yard of a Newport Beach home. Keeping chickens in suburban backyards is becoming increasingly popular. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A rooster sits perched on the hand of Joey Phan in the backyard of his Garden Grove home. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chickens stroll through their enclosure in the yard of a Newport Beach home. Keeping chickens in suburban backyards is becoming increasingly popular. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jim Ulcickas holds eggs laid by his chickens at his home in North Tustin. Raising chickens is an easy way to get natural eggs. FILE: MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A rooster is hoisted from its coop in the backyard of Joey Phan in Garden Grove. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Joey Phan cradles one of his roosters in his backyard in Garden Grove. Phan breeds his chickens for different colors and trains them for pedigree shows. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Chickens find a shady spot to relax. They live in a large enclosure in the yard of a Newport Beach home. Keeping chickens in suburban backyards is becoming increasingly popular. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A rooster looks out a window in its coop in the backyard of Joey Phan in Garden Grove. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jim Ulcickas with his many chickens in the backyard of his home in North Tustin. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Residents of a Newport Beach home keep chickens on their property. Keeping chickens in suburban backyards is becoming increasingly popular. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A rooster strikes a pose in the backyard of Joey Phan in Garden Grove. Phan breeds chickens for different colors and trains them for pedigree shows. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, LONG BEACH REGISTER,

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Corona del Mar resident Michael Resk ran afoul of Newport Beach codes that prohibit him from keeping his six chickens at his Corona del Mar home. The chickens, which came to be known as the Goldenrod 6 went to a home at a local winery. PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL RESK

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The Goldenrod 6 getting ready to enter their new home. PHOTO BY BARBARA VENEZIA

A black and white chicken walks around its enclosure in the yard of a Newport Beach home. Keeping chickens in suburban backyards is becoming increasingly popular.CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Want to learn more about keeping chickens?

The OC Fair is hosting a free workshop, Urban Chickens Demystified, from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Nov. 2 at Centennial Farm. To register, visit ocfair.com/centennialfarm and click on "Garden Classes" in the sidebar.

Want to avoid ruffling any feathers when you bring home your chickens? Here are a few pointers:

- Before you do anything, check with your city's animal control office to see whether chickens are allowed or if a permit is required.

- Consider whether you're willing to keep a chicken for the next 12 to 15 years, their average lifetime.

- Buy a coop that can be secured to the ground to prevent break-ins by such predators as raccoons and coyotes.

- Stock up on the right feed. Professionals suggest a special "laying mash" to boost egg production.

- Feed twice daily, or as advised on the packaging.

- Let them out daily to exercise.

Sources: OC Animal Care, Therry Vargas, Donita Culbertson

Donita Culbertson aims to debunk a few chicken myths.

“Dog barking will drive you crazy, but chickens rarely make a noise,” said the Santa Ana Heights resident, who keeps seven hens in her backyard.

“They’re a little loud in the morning when they get up and do their thing. Then it’s just a bock-bock-bock,” she said.

Just like cats and dogs, she said, some chickens are independent. Others can be trained to sit on your lap.

As chickens take roost in more suburban backyards, owners across the county – and even the country – are learning that these former barnyard animals bring many of the same joys and problems as Fido and Fluffy.

Some travails have spawned a new industry: chicken diapers. A New Hampshire woman started selling Pampers-for-poultry after her 7-year-old kept bringing their chickens indoors, where nature would take its course.

In some cases, chickens have trained their owners. Carol Petunia, a hen, squawks when she wants an “atta girl” after laying an egg.

“I went up to her and she fluffed her feathers,” said Therry Vargas, who keeps Carol Petunia and five other hens behind her Tustin condo. “She just wanted acknowledgement.”

And just like their four-legged counterparts, chickens wind up in county animal shelters in greater numbers.

Shelters for dogs, cats, chickens

Katie Ingram, community outreach supervisor for OC Animal Care, said the shelter, which serves 17 cities and the county’s unincorporated areas, took in 101 chickens this year; the year before, it was 77.

Most are found new homes. They’re rarely euthanized, Ingram said.

Compared to the thousands of cats and dogs, the numbers are tiny. But, Ingram said: “Just like other pets, people don’t think through the reality of owning a chicken.”

Chickens live about 12 to 15 years. They escape from coops and backyards. They dig. They eat your lawn. They multiply.

“It’s okay when it’s two or three, but when it turns into 20 or 30 it’s a problem,” Ingram said.

It’s something she sees more commonly in canyon areas.

The biggest problem, Ingram said, happens when owners don’t realize until too late their town bans chickens.

Nix the chicks

Costa Mesa allows up to five chickens with a $15 annual permit, said police Sgt. Bryan Wadkins. The permit process includes a site visit, and officials check with neighbors to make sure they’re OK with chickens.

Newport Beach has largely prohibited them except in semi-rural Santa Ana Heights, an area that was county land.

Culbertson, besides keeping chickens, helps run Costa Mesa’s Feed Barn, which sells day-old chicks. They’ve sold out their entire stock of up to 800 chicks, which start at about $5.99, for the last three years.

“It’s just been insane,” she said.

They got back into selling chicks three years ago because customers clamored for them, she said.

Culbertson sees suburban chickens as a natural offshoot of rising interest in organic farming and food that hasn’t been genetically modified. Raising chickens, she said, is an easy way to get natural eggs.

She said most of her customers realize chickens aren’t an impulse purchase. They arrive at her store armed with notebooks. They’ve done their research.

They mainly come from surrounding cities, but she also has “tons of customers who live in the real Newport Beach,” she said, meaning areas of the city where chickens are a no-no.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Last year, the Goldenrod 6, the name given to six hens living in Corona del Mar, made headlines. After complaints about smell and noise, the hens got evicted and found a new home in Santa Ana Heights.

Not all hens get so lucky.

Chickens on Craigslist

Gigi, JoJo, Esther and Etta are all for sale on Craigslist. They’re $20 to $30 a piece, but owner Carmen Alabran would like Etta (who gets picked on by Gigi, a French Copper Maran, and “a little bit of a bully”) to find a home with any other hen but Gigi. So she’s a package deal.

Alabran said she loves the chickens, the fresh eggs, and being able to see where her family’s food comes from. But the San Juan Capistrano resident works full-time, and now her youngest is in high school.

“We are just too busy to care for them the way I would like,” she said.

Chicken misconceptions

Chickens are noisy. They smell. These are misconceptions that owners, like Vargas, say are plain wrong.

“If they’re carrying on that means something is wrong,” she said.

Many owners, she said, aren’t sure how to care for their chickens. She’s working to fix that with a free class, “Urban Chickens Demystified,” on the OC Fairgrounds in November. She did the same at the OC Fair last month.

Maybe the chickens are hungry, she said. Maybe they’re thirsty. Maybe they need some Bach.

Decades ago, a seventh grade science project showed her that music boosts egg production. Now she plays the classics – and some jazz – for all of her hens.

“It stimulates emotion in us,” she said. “It does the same thing for the girls.”

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